A/N- Thank you all for your super awesome reviews! I'm so happy that you all enjoyed Emma AND Jean-Paul, I'll admit I was fairly wary of writing JP at first, but I think I fell into the swing of it alright.
And as for Emma, it's nice to see that I still got it. I do have to thank Starlight2Twilight for inspiration for that entire chapter, though. As well as for being my Emma muse.
Please review! Sideways happy face!
The following does not reflect the views or opinions of Marvel or the author known as 'Kinetically Charmed'.
Entry number twenty eight:
I didn't see Rogue at all during the day, but she was pretty concerned that evening, when she caught sight of my new getup. And frankly, I don't really blame her. I tend to do stupid things when I'm stressed, this is a proven fact. Anyway, I'd promised her that she had the right to full out Dynasty slap me if she sensed I was getting too big for my leather britches, and that seemed to satisfy her a little. And any left over concern quickly flew out the window the second she noticed the rest of my new wardrobe.
She's not very good at hiding her jealousy. I'm assuming she was coveting all the black, but one can't be too sure. Besides, she totally does not have the body type for skinny jeans, this is also a proven fact.
So, the next day I decided to give the leather pants another try. Why not, right? I don't have any of the same classes, and I doubt anyone would notice I was wearing the same pants two days in a row. Plus, they practically go with everything. And before you guys jump all over me for heading down a dangerous path, I'll reassure you that I really am not feeling any adverse effect from these leather pants.
They're just so damn soft. Seriously, Emma really sprung for the premium quality leather.
I told this to Rogue as well, when she brought up my possible decent into corruption, but that didn't stop her from eying me warily when we met up after my classes were finished for the day.
"Feeling any... different?" She asked, in a very indiscreet way.
I rolled my eyes, "No."
"It seems a little excessive, don't you think?" She asked as we walked through the crowded halls, "I mean, I just got out of a relationship too, and nobody bought me a shit load of new clothes."
I told you she was jealous.
"I hardly think your "relationship" with Chad counts." I pointed out with an eye roll.
She shrugged and frowned, muttering "I'm just sayin'."
I'm also pretty sure she doesn't like me being almost the same height as her, with the heels on. She likes to be ~*~unique~*~ after all...
"She said it was a birthday present." I explained for the umpteenth time, "And the pants are supposed to boost my confidence."
"But they're not working." She clarified and I shook my head.
"I don't think so. I mean, I don't feel any more awesome than usual."
Rogue hummed thoughtfully, and opened her mouth to speak, when something caught her attention and caused her to stop.
I heard "Hey, nap girl!" And turned to see Ethan coming to a stop in front of Rogue and I, suddenly realizing what Rogue was shamelessly staring at. "Killer pants! You look great!"
"Oh, hey Ethan." I smiled and gave a modest shrug, "Thanks."
Alright, so there's a slight chance that the pants might have been working better than I thought. Because there is no way on earth I would have been able to talk to him so easily without the leather pants on. Except I do need to stress that I did not do my patented smirk and shrug. I didn't, I swear.
"Rogue, this is Ethan, he's one of Doug's roommates."
Rogue let out a strangled sort of laugh/snort, and I watched as her cheeks went red, "Hey."
"Rogue is my roommate." I explained, hoping to keep his attention from the weirdo on my right.
"Awesome!" Ethan grinned back at her with a nod, "Sweet 'do, love that streak."
Rogue let out this super awkward high pitched laugh and blushed again, "Totally..."
"So are you two ladies done for the day?" Ethan asked, graciously ignoring Rogue's strange behaviour. Although I kind of wonder if he's used to women acting super weird around him.
I said yes and Rogue said no. At the same time.
See? The pants aren't magic. I'm still awkward.
"Um, I'm done. Rogue's got a late class." I clarified. "But since we carpool, I just kind of... hang around..."
"Catch some shut eye, nap girl?" He shot me a dazzling pearly white grin and Rogue let out a horribly obnoxious Julia Roberts laugh.
Seriously, I sometimes just don't understand how this woman managed to bag her a Remy. I guess the fact that they started out as mortal enemies really worked in her favour.
"You should come over to our place." Ethan said with a nod, "Doug's there, he's probably just doing school work, he'd love to see you." He winked at me and I glanced over at Rogue who was still grinning at Ethan's beauty.
"Oh, I don't know, I don't want to be in the way-"
"Are you kidding? Doug would love to have you over. I'm just heading back to get my gym bag, so I won't even be there, and you can just ignore Russ." He shrugged, "Come on, we live right around the corner. I'm not taking no for an answer here, nap girl."
I looked back at Rogue and cleared my throat, "Okay... well I guess... I'll just meet you at the car?"
"Hmmm?" She bit her lip and snapped out of her daze, looking back at me with a nod, "Yeah, oh." She looked at her watch and cursed, "I'm runnin' late. I'll meet you at the car after class."
"Yep. Like I just said..." She was clearly not paying attention to me at all.
"It was awesome meeting you, Rogue." Ethan said which caused Rogue to blush again and mutter some type of goodbye before hurrying off to her class.
Ethan walked me to his apartment, talking the entire time about his ab routine, and how I should definitely stop by the gym sometime for some pointers. Apparently people neglect to really target their core muscles when working out. These are things I really didn't care about, but you know, he's just so pretty, so I let him keep talking.
We came to a stop at the door, and he unlocked it as he recapped the importance of working the obliques because you know, they're really the forgotten ab muscles. He pushed the door open and let me step in first, following me in and shutting the door. Doug was pacing in the kitchen with his cell phone up to his ear, glancing up at the sound of the door shutting and doing a quick double take. I gave him a silent wave, dropping my bag by the door and kicking my heels off.
"Uh... Yeah." He said into the phone, "Huh? Yes I'm paying attention. I gotta go mom, I have to study. Love you too." He pressed the end button and Ethan grinned,
"Look who I found wandering around." He said, giving Doug a slap on the shoulder as he passed by, "Thought you wouldn't mind if I brought her back here."
He knit his brow at me with a smile, "Wow, you look great today! Did you get- Are you wearing leather pants?" he asked suddenly, when his eyes hit my legs.
Ethan smirked as he hoisted a gym bag up onto his shoulder and offered Doug a wink, "Have fun, bro." He crossed back over to the door and gave me a nod, "See ya, nap girl."
Doug simply blinked at me and cleared his throat once Ethan had closed the door behind him, "Uh they look- you look nice."
"Yeah, they were... a gift." I said, waving a dismissive hand, "You don't actually have to study do you? Because I don't want to bug you-"
"Oh, no. My mom's been trying to set me up on that blind date, and I'm running out of excuses." He shrugged, "I mean, there's only so much studying a guy can do."
I smiled and sat down on the couch, curling my legs up underneath me, "Well, especially when you're a genius, right?"
He smiled and sat down at the other end of the couch, "So how was your birthday? You got some pants..." His eyes dropped back down to my pants.
"They were a gift." I repeated with a tight lipped smile.
"I kind of got you something." He shrugged, "Not as awesome as leather pants or anything, Catwoman, but you know..."
"You didn't." I laughed with a snort, "You have to stop buying me things, Doug. People are starting to talk."
He grinned and tossed a card into my lap, "I didn't technically buy you anything. It's kind of a re-gift."
"Oh geeze." I knit my brow and rolled my eyes, "Way to go all out."
"Shut up and open it, ya snob." I grinned and ripped the envelope open, finding a birthday card clearly meant for a child inside, wishing the "Birthday Princess" an "Enchanting Day". I opened up the card and out fell two Weird Al tickets.
I looked up at Doug in utter confusion, before looking back down at the two tickets in my lap, "You're giving me your tickets?!"
"Yeah." He shrugged, "I mean, I tried selling them on Craigslist but surprisingly there were no takers."
"I can't take these, Doug." I frowned and handed them back to him, "These were really expensive-"
"Kitty, it's Weird Al. It's not like I broke the bank or anything." He smirked, "Besides, you know you want them."
Dammit, I did.
"I have a hotel room booked for afterwards, you can do a girls night or... whatever." He knit his brow, "I don't really know what girls do, I'm assuming this is appropriate."
Not for any of the girls I know. I had the fleeting mental image of Rogue sitting through a Weird Al concert, with her arms folded across her chest and her headphones in to drown out the noise and I suddenly said,
"Why don't you come with me?" I shook my head before he could protest, "Seriously, who am I gunna take, Rogue? Come on... You've been looking forward to this concert for months, and you went through the trouble of buying tickets-" I glanced down at the dates on the ticket and knit my brow, "Wow, like five months in advance? Nerd alert."
"Yeah," Doug furrowed his brow and nodded thoughtfully, "For some reason I thought they'd sell out a lot quicker..."
"So come with me." I handed him one of the tickets and waved it as I waited for him to take it, "We'll have fun. You know you want to."
He smirked and pressed his lips together, "You're sure?"
"Of course I'm sure!" I said excitedly, "Oh my gosh, we'll have so much fun!" Doug laughed at my enthusiasm as he took the ticket from me and I gasped, "We could dress up! In like, costumes!"
He snorted and shook his head, "Yeah and I'm the nerd."
I was too excited to even pretend to be offended, and gleefully leaned across the couch to give him a hug, "Thank you so much!"
He chuckled and patted my back saying, "It was nothing, really."
"We can be Lucy and Ricky!" I said before sucking in a sharp gasp and pulling back just far enough to look at him, "We could be Amish!"
"Yeah, I'm probably not going to dress up-"
"Oh great." Came Russell's unenthusiastic voice from the end of the hall, causing the two of us to look over at him. "I thought I was clear about not getting all romantic in the living room."
"We weren't- we're not getting romantic." Doug frowned, and I awkwardly moved away from him. I get the feeling that Doug's pals enjoy giving him a hard time about me, and I don't really want to add to that pain. "I just gave Kitty her birthday present."
"Oh." He said with the hint of a smirk, grabbing a box of Cheez-It's off the kitchen counter and unfortunately rounding the couch to join us in the living room. He lowered himself into the arm chair and cracked open the box, "You know that's a re-gift, right? He didn't buy those tickets for you or anything."
I smiled thinly and nodded, "Yeah, I'm aware. Thanks Russell."
He shrugged, stuffing his hand into the box and pulling out some Cheez-It's, pausing momentarily when he noticed my pants. I'm used to this by now, guys really like the pants. The pants do not discriminate. The pants draw them all in. Even the ones like Russell.
He looked back up at me and knit his brow as he popped a few crackers into his mouth, "Girls that wear pants like that usually have a low self esteem. Over-sexualizing your image is a sign of trying to compensate."
I raised an eyebrow, feeling particularly feisty (pants) and crossed my arms, "Is that so?"
He blinked at me and stopped chewing for a moment, giving me the impression that he hadn't meant to sound like a giant ass hat just then. Seriously, it's so hard to read this guy.
"I just meant like, in general." He chewed some more and cleared his throat, causing him to choke on some cracker dust.
Doug rolled his eyes at me and gave his head a shake, "Don't you have some My Little Pony episodes to catch up or something?"
"No." He managed to say indignantly, in spite of the coughing and sputtering, "What's- what's she doing here anyway, doesn't she have class, ever?"
I turned to Doug to answer Russell's question, "Rogue's got a late class on Tuesday's and Thursday's and Ethan said you wouldn't mind the company. I mean, obviously I'm not gunna impose every single Tuesday and-"
Doug snorted and shook his head, "You're not imposing, Kitty. Are you kidding me? We can hang out, play some games, watch some Netflix or something."
That sounded pretty awesome, I'm not gunna lie. It definitely beats sitting in the stupid library for an hour and a half.
"Seriously?" I grinned, "You don't mind me hanging out here?"
"Of course not. The alternative is hanging out with this guy." He jerked his thumb towards Russell with a grin, "It's really a no brainier."
"You only say that because I'm not the one wearing leather pants." Russell said, and I honestly couldn't tell if that was a joke.
Doug snorted, "There's a nice mental image."
There's no way Russell could handle leather pants. He'd be in way over his head, I can just tell he'd go nuts. Plus he totally doesn't have the legs to pull the look off, it'd be like Sponge Bob trying to wear leather pants; Sponge Bob Leather Pants.
Which is disturbing on so many different levels.
... And now I have that mental image in my head.
